HARTFORD — During the 2011 legislative session, new Gov. Dannel P. Malloy became such a familiar presence outside the House and Senate chambers on his way to meetings that a longtime lobbyist jokingly offered Stamford’s ex-mayor his identification badge.

“I said, ’You want to come out and do this, wear one of these?’ ” Michael Riley, of the Connecticut Motor Transport Association, recalled.

Six months on the job and the activist Malloy, by way of the bully pulpit, behind-the-scenes politicking and sheer willpower, has executed a to-do list that includes balancing the budget, enacting massive tax increases, investing in infrastructure investments, and passing social and government reforms.

At Malloy’s urging, a raft of liberal social legislation was rammed through the Legislature. Among the bills: measures outlawing transgender discrimination, decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, establishing early release incentives for prisoners, allowing children of illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates and mandating employers provide paid sick leave to workers.

Malloy’s legislative and budget successes hardly came by dint of personal popularity among voters. He barely won November’s election, and his job approval rating in a March Quinnipiac University poll stood at 35 percent.

Regardless of his pull in the polls, Malloy’s breathless pace has shell-shocked a building that for the last several years was used to seeing big ideas sacrificed while a Republican governor and Democratic Legislature argued their way, sometimes through the summer, to watered-down compromises.

“He came in with a playbook, and he’s pretty much aced it,” Riley said. “I haven’t seen him get beat yet.”

One veteran state employee, who declined to be named, said, “Oh, my God. Most longtime observers will tell you this was the most ambitious agenda in a generation.”

Whether that agenda is good or bad is in the eye of the beholder.

With Democrats controlling the executive branch and General Assembly for the first time in 20 years, frustrated Republicans were consigned to futilely debating Malloy-supported bills before being routinely voted down.

“It has not just been a one-party rule session, but a one-branch rule session,” House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero, R-Norwalk, said. “Anything and everything the governor wanted he dictated to Democratic leadership and they did. Everything.”

Democrats counter it is not a dictatorship but a true partnership.

“The wind’s blowing with us, not against us,” Rep. Bob Godfrey, D-Danbury, said. “What negotiation’s going on is over details, not philosophy or direction.”

’HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD’

There was speculation earlier in the session that Malloy would clash with Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, and House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden. And the new governor made some early overtures to Cafero and Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield.

Former Democratic House Speaker Richard Balducci, now a lobbyist, said he believes current Democratic leaders were so used to relating to Republican governors they early on had to adjust to Malloy being “head of household.”

Ultimately, Donovan said, legislative Democrats realized they had a partner in Malloy.

“Bills we’ve worked for for years, we’ve gotten done,” Donovan said. “Health care (insurance pooling) I was working three or four years to get done. Energy reform, this is the third time through this building.”

Malloy’s priority when he took office Jan. 5 was to address a $3 billion-plus deficit. The governor, Williams and Donovan announced a two-year budget deal April 20 that relies on $2.6 billion in new taxes and $1.6 billion in union concessions. The governor signed it May 4.

Republicans have criticized the labor deal as built on false and unproven savings and say it coddles the unions who put Malloy in office with future raises and no-layoff promises.

But Rep. Livvy Floren, R-Greenwich, who voted against the budget, acknowledged that early passage in some ways came as a relief.

“You know what? It’s done. It’s a financial framework,” she said.

Floren, who also represents a portion of Stamford, said she does not always agree with the new governor, but credits him for laying out a clear set of goals and working hard to see them passed.

“He doesn’t mince words. He said, ’Send me this bill, I’ll sign it. That one, I won’t. And I’m not wasting political capital on this one,’ ” Floren said.

Paid sick leave was expected to fail in the Senate until the governor got involved. Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, one of the bill’s most ardent supporters, contrasted Malloy’s style with predecessor Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

“You could not find a nicer person in the whole state,” Prague said of Rell. “But as governor she was not strong, not decisive. This man is very strong, very decisive.”

GETTING HIS WAY

Cafero argues that Malloy is more than decisive, that he simply refuses to compromise. Cafero called the 17 budget forums the governor hosted across the state for the public Malloy’s “I’m telling you” tour.

Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford, opposed the new state budget for taxing too much and cutting too little. Though complimentary of Malloy’s leadership and work ethic, Meyer said, “This is a governor who has a plan and remembers everybody — as he said to us (Senate Democrats) a few days ago — who might interfere.”

Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, an education committee chairman, has also had run-ins with the administration.

“It’s fair to say there were certain areas this administration decided the direction it wanted to go in, and once that decision was made internally, it was over,” Fleischmann said. “(But) I recognize when you propose changes you face all sorts of opposition and at a certain point have to decide whether you’re going to move ahead or cave.”

But Donovan pointed out that Democrats got the governor to alter some of his middle-class tax proposals and shift the burden to the wealthy.

And James Finley, of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, said it has been refreshing dealing with a former mayor.

“We speak the same language,” Finley said.

In the flush of the session’s final hours, one veteran business leader pointed out that Malloy’s work — and the challenges facing the state — are far from over.

John Rathgeber, president of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, said while Malloy had raised expectations, “I think some work is going to have to be done over the next year and two and three to give a sense the state is truly open for business and that he understands the challenges that face companies to be competitive ... We’re not just all Stamford.”

Exiting the Capitol on Tuesday evening on his way to a political event in Bridgeport, Malloy said, “I think we’ve gotten a lot done. Arguably, it’s one of the most successful sessions in a difficult economy.”

A few hours later, he was back walking through the hallways outside the legislative chambers.